Lights out for downtown Houston buildings?

Lights Out Houston, an initiative put on by the city and other interest groups, will ask commercial building owners around the region to turn off all unnecessary lights between Thursday and Sunday.

So far, about 134,000,000 square feet of office space in downtown has pledged to participate. Large firms paricipating include CBRE, Brookfield, Transwestern and Stream. Other owners include Harris County, Houston ISD, Hines and Chevron.

There’s about 150 million square feet of office space in greater Houston and according to the Lights Out organizers, “by turning off 75 percent of the non-essential lights in that amount of space, it would equal $5,287,600 in annual cost savings.” That would equal enough to power 3,700 homes in Houston.

The organizers say the effort shows how much money business owners can save by turning off lights. The program started in 2008 to demonstrate a commitment to energy efficiency for the business community, the city of Houston and Harris County. The participants were asked to sign a pledge to make a commitment to turn off lights.